One is the bipartisan history of this marine conservation effort, which builds on the designation of the existing monument a decade ago by President George W. Bush. Bush’s decision reflects the longstanding reality that conservative politics is not inconsistent with environmental conservation — at least in some respects.

Eilperin’s piece contains an interesting historical detail, noting that efforts to protect the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, which form the geographic spine of the reserve, involved a host of presidential administrations:

With Friday’s action, a total of seven presidents — starting with Theodore Roosevelt in 1909 — have taken steps to safeguard part of the archipelago, which is one of the most biologically diverse areas of the world. It features the largest seabird gathering site in the world, with more than 14 million birds from 22 species, nearly all of the remaining endangered Hawaiian monk seals, Hawaiian green sea turtles and Laysan albatrosses.

Communication Can Foster Conservation

Some readers may recall stories from 2006 describing how some prominent ocean champions and a documentary on that Pacific region helped spur Bush to act. A report by NBC News nicely summarized how things played out, starting with a March 2006 White House screening of “Voyage to Kure,” a film on the islands and surrounding ecosystems by Jean-Michel Cousteau:

Bush said he drew inspiration from a documentary on the island chain’s biological resources shown at the White House in April by Jean-Michel Cousteau, the marine explorer and filmmaker whose father was the late Jacques Cousteau. Over dinner that night, Bush said he also got “a pretty good lecture about life” from marine biologist Sylvia Earle, an explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society.

Much credit goes to communicative ocean campaigners like Cousteau and Earle, Hawaiian politicians and indigenous groups and the many organizations that have helped illuminate the riches and risks in such waters and facilitated such governmental actions. You can sift some related output here.

Given how communication efforts so often falter, it’s great to be able to point my Pace University documentary students to an example like this — where a film really made a difference.

New Map Lines Don’t Block Plastic Peril

But it’s also important to note that some environmental perils, particularly drifting plastic pollution the consequences of an unabated buildup of greenhouse gases, can’t be addressed with new lines on a chart. The images below show the devastating impact of plastic waste on the albatrosses that nest on Midway Atoll, within the monument’s boundaries. There’s more work to be done.

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By 2050 or so, the human population is expected to pass nine billion. Those billions will be seeking food, water and other resources on a planet where humans are already shaping climate and the web of life. Dot Earth was created by Andrew Revkin in October 2007 -- in part with support from a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship -- to explore ways to balance human needs and the planet's limits.